Trotter Review Volume 1 Article 5 Issue 3 Trotter Institute Review

9-23-1987 Reel Blacks: The Good Old Days Patricia A. Turner University of Massachusetts Boston

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Recommended Citation Turner, Patricia A. (1987) "Reel Blacks: The Good Old aD ys," Trotter Review: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 5. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol1/iss3/5

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the William Monroe Trotter Institute at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Trotter Review by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. At least one lesson we can extract from the educational James Jennings, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and former Dean of the College of Public and Community Service, and and economic struggles that blacks have engaged in Senior Fellow at the William Monroe Trotter Institute, University throughout American history is that serious economic of Massachusetts at Boston. This article is the edited transcript change, beneficial to blacks, will not occur without of a presentation made in the Distinguished Lecture Series, Uni- blacks having the power to demand it and to politically versity of Massachusetts at Boston on May 5, 1987. and economically punish those who stand in the way of justice and equality for blacks. Political power is the key to survival for blacks in America.

Reel Blacks

by

Patricia A. Turner

The Good Old Days

Like most of my colleagues engaged in film studies tion of a reunion weekend in The Big Chill, and Rob rather than film practice, I occasionally allow myself to Reiner's glimpse of 1950s coming of age in Stand By Me. fantasize about the kind of films I would produce if I were With period costumes, period cars and period sets, the a film maker. Several commercial films popular in the last producers meticulously recreate the environments of their fifteen years have inspired in me a bare bones scenario. youth. But without a doubt, the period music is the most

My movie would have an all black "ensemble" cast. The important component of all. Each film boasts a sound- plot would contain flashbacks tracing the events in the track true to the era it reflects. Most of the musical selec- characters' adolescence that solidified their friendship. tions are in fact classic rhythm and blues selections or These flashbacks would be punctuated by rhythmless early rock and roll songs. The fraternity brothers in Ani- music performed by white artists. Although no hint of mal House dance to Otis Day and the Nights' "Shout." "soul" would be tolerated on my movie's soundtrack, my The white hero in Back to the Future inadvertently "in- black characters would enthusiastically embrace it as if it spires" Chuck Berry to develop a new sound. The married were their own. couple in Diner fight over the placement of rhythm and

I doubt that my film would achieve any real commercial blues discs in a record cabinet. Peggy Sue is shocked to success, in spite of the fact that so many recent movies discover that her musician husband played with an R and have portrayed the reverse situation. Ever since George B group in the sixties. The opening credits in The Big Chill Lucas' classic American Graffiti broke box office records are set against Marvin Gaye's rendition of "I Heard It in 1973, white film makers have endeavored to find inno- Through The Grapevine" and Stand By Me takes its name vative ways of turning nostalgia for the late 1950s and from Ben E. King's 1957 hit record. early 1960s into movie making success in the 1970s and Although the characters in these films identify black 1980s. The more notable efforts have included George music as a significant reminder of their coming of age, Landis' raucous view of early 1960s fraternity life in Ani- their social groups do not reflect any impulses to inte- mal House, Steven Spielberg's time travel adventure in grate. Neither of the competing fraternities in Animal Back to the Future, Francis Ford Coppola's foray into fan- House includes any black members. Nonetheless the tasy in Peggy Sue Got Married, Lawrence Kasdan's depic- members assume that they will be welcome in the all black

21 nightclub they descend upon in one of their road trips. writer for People magazine, began his career by teaching While the Back to the Future hero momentarily pauses to in Harlem. Meg, now a real estate lawyer in Atlanta, be- assure a black floor sweeper and his boss that the post- gan her law career as a public advocate in Philadelphia. fifties era will bring about political opportunities for She categorizes her former clients as "scum," while he re- blacks, his own life in the eighties doesn't reflect any inter- duces his students to "those kids in Harlem." They ac- racial friendships. The cliques that unite the characters in knowledge that they had been ill-equipped to cope with Diner, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Big Chill and Stand By the demands of their original, more idealistic vocations. Me are all white groups. With a moderate amount of guilt, they review their deci-

I strongly suspect that the talented film makers repre- sions to pursue more lucrative ventures. In the end, the sented by these films would protest any accusations of justifications for career choices that limit their contact racism. After all, if their young lives were influenced by with non-whites prevail. Their post-graduation ventures black music but not by black people, then they are correct into public service work emerge as the "trials by fire" they to portray that phenomenon in their films. However, the survived prior to finding their true callings. film makers may not be aware that their films can be used Meg and Michael agree that their original motivation to study much more than adolescent rites of passage. for altruistic efforts was inspired by the self-sacrificing

Whether they realize it or not, their films have little ap- spirit of the college group of friends currently reassem- plicability to the black experience. Although many blacks bled. The casting of this group is particularly intriguing. wish the Civil Rights issues could be as popular with This is an all-white clique. In spite of their alleged concern eighties whites as they were with some sixties whites, most with the Civil Rights movement and social change, they blacks do not share in any of this reverence for the past. never seem to have incorporated any black friends into Black coming of age was rarely as idyllic as white. Refer- their inner circle. Given this casting, the audience can ences to hypocrisy and broken promises are likely to only assume that their college days contact with blacks emerge in present day black discussions about the sixties was completely superficial. These white characters and seventies. By focusing on the good old days when danced to the beat of Temptations' hits, made love to blacks could be relied upon to supply good dance music Aretha Franklin ballads, and stylishly affiliated them- without intruding into the social milieu, the film makers selves with all of the right causes, but they limited their are inadvertently chronicling a very fundamental differ- contact with black people. It is no wonder that Meg and ence in black and white perceptions of the past and the Michael were so nonplussed by the communities they myth of integration. tried to serve; apparently their previous relationships

Perhaps the most blatant statement of this theme is dis- were limited to individuals like themselves. cernible in Kasdan's 1983 hit The Big Chill. Set in a ram- Like the other nostalgia films, The Big Chill enjoins the bling vacation home following the suicide of a sixties rad- audience to share in a celebration of the "good old days." ical, the movie focuses on the group of old college friends But what exactly made these times so special? The tena- who gather for the funeral and end up spending the week- city of the interpersonal relationships is foregrounded in end together. Reminiscing about the sixties social crises most of these films. The implied complexity of contem- that originally brought them together, the friends recall porary life is contrasted to the simplicity of the earlier protesting the war in Viet Nam and working for the Civil times. Race relations were less complicated in these times. Rights movement during their student days at the Univer- Blacks had been encouraged to have their music cross- sity of Michigan at Ann Arbor. One long defunct couple over into the white music world, but other parts of that remembers making love on the night before the March on white world were still restricted. The proliferation and Washington. Sipping white wine and smoking pot on popularity of these films suggests that they offer a genu- overstuffed couches, they fondly recall the days when ine view of contemporary white attitudes towards the

Huey and Bobby (referring to black activists Huey New- present and the past. If this is the case, then it seems rea- ton and Bobby Seales) were their heroes. Their recollec- sonable to assume that whites are voicing a preference for tions are often triggered by a never-ending supply of an era in which they could guiltlessly exclude blacks from oldies their host puts on the turntable. Indeed the film their social and occupational circles while enjoying the was largely responsible for renewed interest in Motown music made by black artists. music. As this white assemblage listens to lively black mu- sic, a subtle tension emerges as they ponder the paths their lives have taken. Patricia A. Turner, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Black Studies the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She is a special- At least two of the characters had intended to work for at ist in African American Folklore. social change following their graduation. Michael, now a

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